The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

“Your client has never coughed once.”

That was Judge Turnoff getting even the defendant to laugh during his suppression hearing involving cough syrup. From David Ovalle:

For all his Instagram photos of guns, cash and drugs, the self-proclaimed “CEO of the Purple Drank” insisted he wasn’t actually peddling large bottles of prescription cough syrup to Miami’s hip-hop crowd.

He posted all that stuff to enhance his street cred, self-described rap producer Harrison Garcia told a federal judge Monday. And for the likes on social media.

“I had an image to portray, to boost up my followers,” Garcia said. “I guess it’s just the music industry.”

And so Garcia, the accused mastermind of dozens of pharmacy heists across South Florida, claimed he was not a dealer but just a junkie, addicted to drinking the syrup mixed with soda, a brew known as “lean” or “sizzurp.”

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The Southern District of Florida blog was started by David Oscar Markus, who is a criminal trial and appellate lawyer in Miami, Florida. He frequently practices in federal courts around the country, including his hometown, the Southern District of Florida and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a former law clerk to then-Chief Judge of the District, Edward B. Davis.